With a Subtitle: Look to Him and let Him look upon you. Don't hide what He already knows, but openly give Him what He wants to take from you.
A brief Excerpt: The verse from Isaiah 53:3 describes Jesus as despised and rejected, a man of sorrows. The message encourages not to hide from Jesus but to openly seek Him, acknowledging our true selves and burdens and allowing Him to heal and forgive.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Isaiah 53:3, “He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.”
Background
I know that I am not the only one who might have done this in school. The teacher would be reviewing our assignment or asking us about what we were supposed to have read the night before, and I would be doing my best not to make eye contact with her. It was as if I was three years old again and thought that if I don’t see her, then she surely cannot see me. It was a horrible feeling, trying to become invisible right there in the middle of the classroom. Amazingly, the teacher seemed to understand something about mercy because rarely would I get called on when I was avoiding the chance. I was usually able to avoid that dreaded experience of embarrassment that could paralyze a student amongst his peers. But when we sit before our Savior, when He calls out to us with mercy and grace, do we treat Him like we did our teachers in school?
Application
Are we trying to hide from Him, or attempting to hide something from Him, hoping to not have to deal with it? We come to Him with our requests and needs, but are we hiding our faces from Him, our true faces that show who we really are and the pain and guilt we really feel? Jesus went through it all, saw it all, knows it all. There is nothing so horrific that He will turn away in shock. There is nothing so small that He will brush us aside as insignificant. Don’t hide your face from Him. Your eyes, which show the burdens and concerns that you carry with you, need to look upon Him. They don’t need to shy away from Him, hoping He doesn’t call on you. Your knees, which can stand so strong in self- reliance or determination, need to bend to His will and receive the healing of confession and forgiveness. Your heart, which gets pulled in every direction and feels every emotion, needs to esteem Him high and worthy above all others. Jesus was despised and rejected, but He endured it in our stead so we could give Him what the world throws at us. Give Him what He wants, and don’t hide any longer.
Charge
As we seek Him today, look to Him and let Him look upon you. Don’t hide what He already knows, but openly give Him what He wants to take from you.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org